The planet is turning green. The colour “green” represents environmental awareness, the force behind cutting-edge technology, and the catchphrase of the socially conscious. Pest control is only one of many new goods that the environment and man’s impact on it are driving to market. Particularly in the commercial sector, environmentally friendly pest control services are becoming more and more popular. Even environmentally conscious home consumers are looking for natural alternatives to conventional pesticides, but their enthusiasm is frequently dampened by the 10% to 20% price difference and extended treatment schedules, which can last for several weeks. For more information about ant control, visit our website today.
IPM strategies appear to be becoming more popular in the pest management sector as a result of rising environmental awareness in America and more strict government rules governing traditional chemical pesticides. IPM is seen as safer for people, pets, and secondary scavengers like owls in addition to the environment. Two-thirds of the 378 pest management firms questioned by Pest Control Technology magazine in 2008 claimed to provide some kind of IPM services.
IPM focuses on eco-friendly preventative tactics intended to keep pests out rather than dousing pest areas with a lethal combination of potent insecticides designed to kill. Elimination and control efforts concentrate on locating and getting rid of the sources of infestation: entry sites, attractants, harborage, and food. Low- or no-toxicity solutions can also be used to get pests to leave.
IPM is attracting the interest of hotels, office buildings, apartment complexes, other commercial enterprises, as well as eco-conscious residential customers. It is especially well-liked by schools and nursing homes tasked with protecting the health of the nation’s youngest and oldest citizens, who are most at risk from hazardous chemicals. Interest in IPM is bringing a slew of new ecologically friendly pest management technologies to market, both high-tech and low-tech, driven equally by environmental concerns and health danger fears.
Tom Green, head of the Integrated Pest Management Institute of North America, a non-profit organisation that certifies green exterminating businesses, remarked, “Probably the greatest product out there is a door sweep. Green noted in an Associated Press interview published online by MSNBC in April: “A pencil-sized hole can be squeezed through by a mouse. Therefore, if your door has a quarter-inch gap underneath it, a mouse will assume there isn’t even a door there.” Cockroaches can squeeze through a gap of just 1/8 inch.
According to Cindy Mannes, a spokeswoman for the National Pest Management Association, the $6.3 billion trade association for the pest management business, IPM is “a superior approach to pest control for the health of the home, the environment, and the family.” Mannes warned that there is little industry agreement on what constitutes “green services” because IPM is a relatively new tool in the pest management arsenal.
The Green Shield Certified (GSC) programme was developed by the Integrated Pest Management Institute of North America in an effort to establish industry standards for IPM services and suppliers. The EPA, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), and HUD support the Global Sustainable Certification (GSC), which identifies pest management products and businesses that forgo conventional pesticides in favour of environmentally friendly control methods. IPM promotes mechanical, physical, and cultural pest control techniques, however it is possible to apply biopesticides made from naturally occurring substances such particular minerals, plants, animals, and microbes.
Pest control techniques that are novel and occasionally unusual are replacing toxic chemical sprays. Some are quite high-tech, such as the Cryonite quick-freeze bed insect eradication method. Others, like trained dogs that can detect bed bugs, appear to be fairly low-tech but use cutting-edge techniques to produce results. For instance, farmers have long utilised dogs’ keen senses of smell to find troublesome pests, but teaching dogs to detect explosives and drugs is a more recent development. It’s cutting edge to train canines to detect termites and bedbugs using those same methods.
Birth control is a new method of pest control. When mosquitoes carrying the potentially fatal West Nile Virus threatened San Francisco, bicycle messengers were hired to tour the city and deposit packets of biological insecticide into the 20,000 storm drains. According to a recent article on the National Public Radio website, the new technique, which can be thought of as a form of mosquito birth control, is regarded to be safer than the traditional method of killing mosquitoes, which involves aerial spraying with the chemical pyrethrum.
Naturally, efforts are being made to create a better mousetrap. Mice or rats are drawn to a food station that has been coated with fluorescent powder using the novel Track & Trap technology. Rodents create a trail that can be seen under a blacklight, which enables pest control professionals to block entryways. In the near future, NightWatch will use pheromone studies to entice and capture bed bugs. A sonic repellent for rats and squirrels that goes by the name Rat Zapper is currently being tested in England. It is said to give a deadly shock using just two AA batteries.
A posse of government laws ride with this inflow of new eco-friendly goods. The government is accused of arbitrarily restricting a homeowner’s capacity to safeguard his property by critics of current EPA laws banning the sale of specific pest-killing chemicals. Following the EPA’s 2004 prohibition on the chemical diazinon for residential use, a potent ant-killer was no longer available to homeowners for use in pest control. Similar to the 2008 EPA regulations, which restricted the sale of small amounts of efficient rodenticides unless sold inside an enclosed trap, hardware and home improvement stores no longer carry rodenticides, making it harder for homeowners to defend their homes and loved ones from these disease-carrying pests.
The government’s pesticide-control initiatives, which serve the greater good, focus especially on safeguarding children. A research by the American Association of Poison Control Centers, which was reported in a CNN online article from May 20, 2008, found that rat poison was to blame for approximately 60,000 poisonings between 2001 and 2003, 250 of which resulted in serious injuries or fatalities. Every animal tested by the National Wildlife Service in California had rodenticide residue.
Natural pest control and cutting-edge, eco-friendly pest management products and practises are gaining popularity with consumers. Consumers’ capacity to self-treat pest infestations is becoming increasingly constrained by government rules and availability, leading them to seek help from professional pest management businesses. While this has shown to be a practical alternative for businesses, few home consumers are willing to pay more for newer, labor-intensive green pest control products and even fewer are willing to wait the extra week or two it might take for these products to start working. Pest control businesses must take the initiative to inform consumers about the long-term advantages of eco-friendly and natural pest control methods.
Despite the fact that when people have a pest problem, they want it solved right away (the cold, hard truth)! Consumer interest in environmental friendliness declines if rats or mice are invading their home, destroying their property and endangering their family with disease, if termites or carpenter ants are eating away at their home equity, if roaches are taking over their kitchen, or if they are sharing a bed with bed bugs. The main reason consumers contact a pest control business is to have the pests killed! Now! By expanding their selection of natural and environmentally friendly pest control products, pest control companies are bucking the trend of consumer desire for fast eradication. The most responsible long-term approach to pest management, one that safeguards our environment, kids, and our own health, is taken by these new natural products. In the pest control industry, true leadership requires embracing these new organic and natural solutions even when they are not yet very well-liked by consumers. At times, going against the grain of public desire can be lonely. Want to know more about exterminating? Visit our website for more information.